As Darkness falls and Daylight rises
by Mad Man in the Flesh
Summary: A new member joins the Young Justice Team, but with a past shrouded in mystery and power unknown, will the team even trust him and why is he obsessed with the Helmet of Fate? Artemis x OC, frankly I don't like Spitfire and I grew up with another pairing for Kid Flash and that was Jinx from the Teen Titans. Anyone would probably know her as that was an awesome TV show. MMITF OUT!
1. Chapter 1

Cheshire was running for all her worth, the Young Justice were chasing after her and she could not lose them because of that damn Martian kept on following her through her mind. Yet that wasn't the real reason she was running, every time she looked up a man in a black robe and a black, white and red mask that covered everything on his face. It unnerved her as she was trained along side him in the League of Shadows by Ra's Al Ghul and yet no one knew his name and then he was exiled after six months and the fact he was here was unnerving her. Sure she went on some missions with him before but that was when she trusted him. He was the best assassin in the world and Deadshot had absolutely nothing on him, he could kill someone and Batman wouldn't even be able to find him. Without knowing Cheshire had run into an alley and she could here five pair of feet running towards her from three different directions, but if only she had seen the arrow flying out of the darkness and into her shoulder. Cheshire screamed in pain as the arrow pierced through the flesh and bone. If only she felt the arrow she would've saw the potion it was covered in and maybe she could've got away from the Young Justice and the man who dropped down in front of her.

"Hello Cheshire," the man said, "How are you doing? I haven't seen you in two months and you're already trying to avoid me?"

"Ragnarök, what are you doing here?" Cheshire said as best she could without screaming from the pain.

"The Young Justice League is coming and the arrow is coated in your paralysis potion. So let's see how long you last, and my name is not Ragnarök. The Shadows made that up for me. My name is…" he stopped as an arrow flew past his head and imbedded it in the wall beside him. I looked around and sure enough Artemis and the rest of the league stood there, "My name is Shade" he whispered into her ear before he disappeared into the shadows as another arrow and birdarang flew past him. Cheshire fell into unconsciousness as the arrow was pulled out of her shoulder and Super boy carried her into the bio ship.

When Cheshire regained consciousness, she found herself chained to a bed and her mask was on the table beside her, almost taunting her that she was caught so easily.

"Good, you're up," a monotone voice said startling Jade, looking up she noticed it was Batman, now she was starting to get scared, "Now, you're going to tell me who did this, or you and I are going to have a very hard time." Batman said staring into her black eyes.

"If I know Shade or Ragnarök, whatever he wants to be called, he probably planted a tracker on me and is probably coming here now." Jade said smiling, Batman looked at her before he examined her skin were the wound was and sure enough a small red light was blinking behind her skin. Batman looked up into Jade's smiling face as he asked her another question.

"What's his name, who trained him and why is he after you?" Batman fired off in a quick fire way.

"No one except him knows his name. He was trained by Ra's Al Ghul in the League of Shadow, and he's after me because I betrayed him and exiled him from the League. Now he knows I'm here, he'll be coming." Just then a warning system came on with a deafening blare and a red light bathed everything.

"Batman, someone has breached Mount Justice!" Aqua lad shouted through the door as an explosion shook the place as the alarm stopped working.

"Guess that's my angel of darkness," Jade chuckled as Batman gave orders for everyone to come to the hospital ward and protect her, "He'll get through the defences, actually he probably already has." Jade chuckled as she saw her sister pulling out her bow and notch her arrow and pointing it to the door. Batman started typing something into a computer and a massive screen appeared that showed everywhere in Mount Justice. At first nothing happened, and then the zeta beam started charging up until a figure in a red outfit walked out with two swords on his back and claws instead of hands. Cheshire instantly tensed up as she realized who had arrived and started struggling against her bonds, which didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

"I'm guessing that's Shade." Batman said gesturing to the figure walking slowly to the hospital ward. Jade just shook her head as she struggled even harder.

"I've made my far share of enemies and this is one of them. His name is Raptor and he was in the League of Shadows like me and then he left. He hated me and never made any move to hide it. Shade can at least tolerate me, but Shade would never kill me. He was tracking me to save me." Jade said. The whole team just stared at the man until the zeta beam charged up again and a man in black robes and clothes walked in with a sword and collapsible bow like Red Arrow's on his back. When Raptor saw him, he started backing away; fear obvious in him "Let me guess," Robin started, "That's Shade." Jade just nodded as she watched as Raptor started backing away. Then suddenly he charged with his claws swiping out in front of him. Most of the team looked on in awe as Shade grabbed both claws in mid swing and flipped him over. Raptor was up on his feet in seconds but by then Shade had already placed a collar on his neck, yet Raptor didn't notice and the first step he took shocked him with twenty volts of electricity.

"What is that collar doing?" Aqua lad said staring at Jade.

"It's a shock collar, each movement increases the shock. He put it on me once to test it out and trust me it hurts. I reached one hundred volts before I passed out." Cheshire said as she stopped struggling and watched the screen, or more importantly Shade, as he started punching everywhere on Raptor's exposed body as he ripped the armour from his chest and arms. Raptor started retreating back towards the zeta beam but stopped as he got shocked again. He quickly reduced the collar to scraps of metal before running towards the zeta beams once again. A few seconds later Raptor was gone and only Shade stood in the training hall staring at the armour of Raptor that was lying on the floor. Then all the screens started going black as something covered the cameras. When the cameras came back on, Shade had disappeared and Raptor was lying unconscious on the ground beside his armour and the floor had turned black from something. Then a voice came over the intercom,

"Batman, are you all okay? The Mountain went offline for ten minutes and when we tried to contact you we were blocked. What happened?" Superman said from the Watchtower.

"Mount Justice got breached, but we've caught the person and we're going to interrogate him when he wakes up." Batman said gesturing to Super boy and M'gann to go to the training hall. They got the message and headed out the door.

"Batman, you're needed back on the watchtower. Black Canary, you're in charge." Superman said before the communication cut out.

"Black Canary, keep the Team safe. When I get back you and Cheshire will hunt down Shade." Batman said as he walked out the door towards the zeta beams.

"Artemis, keep watch over Cheshire. We'll take swifts every hour; I'll go next, then Robin and so on." Aqua lad said as he walked out of the room only to be pushed back in by a wall of shadow.

"Going somewhere Aqua Boy?" Cheshire asked with a small hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"What is that!" Wally shouted as he ran straight into the wall before being bounced back and into Kaldur.

"No idea Kid." Robin said as he punched the shadows before he too was thrown back into the room.

"Stand back." Canary said before she let a high pitch screech that hit Super boy as the shadows dispersed. A figure then formed out of the shadows before lunging at Black Canary and throwing her against a wall. He then grabbed one of Artemis' arrows and Robin's birdarang before activating the smoke screen on them. In a matter of moments the whole room was covered in fog and only Robin could see through it. Shade stared moving through the fog towards Cheshire who started struggling in her bonds but quickly stopped when she felt her being dragged of by her sister towards the door. The locking of a door got everyone's attention as the smoke cleared and only Kid Flash, Aqua lad and Black Canary were left in the room. Shade quickly picked up the mask before vanishing in a column of fire, the three heroes heard footsteps running and a bow twang was heard before a warping sound started as the zeta beam charged up and soon the sounds of Cheshire's voice could be heard.  
"Well this funny and all, but I best be going now." And then the sound of the zeta beam went of once again as someone else left before it went off for a third time in seconds.  
"Stay, Cheshire." A mans voice said before there was three quick explosions happened, before a monotone voice rang out.

"_Zeta-Beam Tubes, Offline."_

When the rest of the team came around the corner, they were in for quite a shock. Cheshire was gone as was Shade, and the rest off the team who weren't with Black Canary, were knocked out and sprawled across the floor, and if things couldn't get any worse, Batman just had to phone in at that moment.

"Canary, what happened in the Mountain? The zeta beams have went offline, and we're seeing damage from the watchtower."  
"Shade happened. He came to the hospital ward and attacked us. I believe his real target was Cheshire, but we don't know. All I know is he's strong and has troubling powers. It would be wise to get the League after him and Cheshire as they seem to be friends. Robin, who destroyed the zeta beams?" Canary said to Batman only turning around to look at Robin.

"Cheshire threw some type of explosion into the zeta beam power core. It will take a while to get them up and running again." Batman just gave a slight nod before talking.

"The team will go after Shade while the League will try and get the tubes up and running again. Now use the Bio Ship and Miss Martian, try and find him. Batman out." And with that the team and Black Canary ran towards the Bio ship before going into Happy Harbour, where M'gann said she sensed him.

In twenty minutes they found Shade and Cheshire fighting across the rooftops of Happy Harbour. It was obvious Shade was winning as he kept disappearing and reappearing from different places and renewed the attack. For a few minutes the team watched Shade's ferocity as he attacked Cheshire, yet kept his anger under control. Black Canary obviously seeing enough let out a Canary Cry, which allowed Cheshire to escape in a cloud of smoke which angered Shade as he appeared in front of Canary, and he looked pissed off.

"What is your problem? I was trying to tire her out so I could take her to Belle Reve, but you do a Canary Cry, distracting me and you allowed her to get away. She owes me a favour and I want to get that favour. Even if it takes me three days or forty years." Shade said dangerously quiet.

"Look here," Canary started before Shade jumped out of the ship, "I really didn't want to do a chase today." Canary muttered before jumping out after him. Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis jumped out quickly after Canary as M'gann, Conner and Aqua lad went to cut him of in a bio ship.

Two hours later the team had finally cornered him in empty theatre on the east side of Happy Harbour and Shade looked like he was growing tired, as was the team, except for M'gann, Conner and Aqua lad who were still in the Bio Ship incase Shade somehow escaped.

"Look, you've got no where to run. So just save yourself the trouble and give yourself in." Robin said while holding a birdarang in both his hands, Artemis had a putty arrow notched and ready to fire and Kid Flash was ready to run at Shade.

"How old is this building? Fifty, sixty years? And why are there explosives in the basement? And what does this wire do and how come the screen still works?" Shade said quickly that only Kid Flash and Black Canary heard him.

"What do you mean?" Canary said as she noticed Shade point behind her. On the screen was Joker, where he was, but they did know that he was laughing. He then proceeded to pull out a small box of metal with a big red button on it before pushing it. At first nothing happened but the whole floor and ceiling started glowing red from the amount of bombs that were in the room. They saw Shade starting to run towards them as the ceiling started exploding sending chunks of rock into the sky and onto the floor. They were almost at the door when Black Canary, Kid Flash and Robin all fell down from one of the explosions as the debris from the roof blocked of the three's only escape route as they heard the bio ship falling into the now destroyed theatre, on the side with Black Canary and all of Joker's minions. Only Artemis and Shade made it out and the former looked like she wanted to break down and cry while the latter was completely shocked at what had happened. Artemis then rushed into Shade and started crying as she heard her team through the mind link and could tell how much pain they were in. Shade was shocked at the girl's reaction but began rubbing small circles on her back, hoping it was soothing her.

"Look, we'll get them back. We'll go back to Mount Justice, contact the league and track them down to where ever the Joker took them, but I swear we will find them." Shade said as he looked down to the blonde archer that was crying on his shoulder. The girl stopped crying as she looked up into Shade's face, though she couldn't tell much about him. His mask was shaped like Robins except his was black, red and white, she could see a scar travelling over his right eye and ending just below his mask, other than that Artemis couldn't really tell what he looked like because of the hooded robe he was wearing and his chest was warm to the touch so she expect something under the shirt protecting him and keeping him warm.

"Do you mean that?" Artemis said as she pulled out of his grasp while he nodded at her and gave her a small smile, "Name's Artemis and how do you plan on getting back to the cave while the zeta beams are down?" Shade just smiled before grabbing her arm and ran straight towards a shadow, while Artemis was screaming that they would just smack against the wall, but instead of doing that they vanished straight into the shadow. When she entered the shadow, Artemis felt her entire body going limp and Shade felt this to because he started carrying her bridal style. Shade then closed her eyes but that didn't stop her from hearing the moans of someone or something. As quickly as the journey started, it stopped and they were back in the brightly lit cave, before both of them fell into darkness.

When Artemis woke up she saw Green Lantern and Batman talking, no shouting at Shade to tell them what happened. None of them noticed Artemis wake up until she was caught by Superman.

"Are you okay?" Superman said as Batman turned around before walking over to her.

"Artemis what happened? The team's not responding and there were four explosions in four different places, Star City, Gotham City, New York and in Happy Harbour. What happened?" Batman asked while shaking Artemis' shoulder.

"We were chasing Shade and had him trapped in an empty theatre when the Joker came on the screen," Artemis started before Batman stopped her.

"Joker, I should've known. So Shade was telling the truth, sorry, Now Artemis and Shade, go get some sleep. Tomorrow, both of you are going to track down the Joker and whoever else might be involved and if able to, capture them. Shade, there's an empty room opposite Artemis', you can sleep there and if you chose to stay here." Batman said as he shooed us out of the hospital ward and towards the training hall.

"What did Batman mean when he said you can stay here?" Artemis said walking on shaky legs, after remembering the odd form of travel.

"Um... Well, I got to sort of stay under an observation team, you heard of EMCO?" Shade said as he looked towards Artemis who gave him a blank expression.

"Who?" Artemis asked almost unbelieving as she looked at Shade and stopped him before getting him to look her in the eye.

"They're sort of the people who gave me my powers. Kinda like how Super boy was cloned from Superman's DNA. Anyway getting of topic, EMGO stands for Enhancing Magical Gene Operations. They have bases worldwide and are hidden underground. Anyway, I was one of their test subjects from an early age and something went wrong. They were trying to improve my condition as I was no older than five at the time, and the drugs they gave me were fatal, but they didn't know, getting off topic once again, they hooked me up to machinery when I was five all the way through till I was fifteen, the drugs were taken out of my system and I was getting trained in magic, healing, defensive and combat. On the last test, something happened and everything started going wrong. The machine I was strapped to started changing as something else was loaded into my genes, my entire system got rewritten in a matter of seconds and before I knew what had happened everything had changed in a matter of seconds. Fire licked the room and attacked the scientists that hadn't been killed by the fallen machinery and the shadows were constantly changing to shapes that shouldn't have been there. The everything went even more wrong, the shadows cut through everything and ripped the scientists to pieces. The laboratory started exploding and then I was outside. In the Himalayans, the thing was I wasn't cold like I should've been; I was warm in a pair of shorts and a small shirt that barely fit me and I was warm. When I tried to do some of the magic the scientists embedded into my DNA a fire started up in my hand instead of the normal energy and then I disappeared and ended up in the same place where everything began. My old house, everything was exactly the same but I couldn't call it my house anymore after not seeing it for ten years, but I sensed something of about it and I felt death surrounding the entire house like a force field, it was intoxicating and scary at the same time and I didn't know what to think. But I seen some weird things in the house that I couldn't explain, ghosts past by and spoke to me. I didn't hear a word they said but I new they spoke to me as I could hear buzzing in my mind and it was then I knew I had changed. The experiments they did on me changed me and when the last experiment failed, something was let out and into my mind." And with that Shade stopped talking and just broke down in front of her. Artemis had no idea what she should do and decided to try and comfort him, even if it wasn't her thing to do. She petted his back rather awkwardly and he held onto her like she was his lifeline in the middle of the ocean.

"Everything will be fine Shade, well get through this and the team will help you. I'm sure of it, now go to sleep and we'll find the time in the team and when you feel like telling the story, we'll take." Artemis said as she pushed Shade into the room opposite hers in the cave before walking in and changing into a small pair of shorts and shirt before flopping down on the green covered bed and promptly falling asleep.

The next day, Artemis woke up to the smell of pancakes and sausage coming from under her door. Artemis started walking to the kitchen in her pyjamas, even though the top was a bit small and flaunted a bit too much of her stomach like her costume, she was hungry and wanted to see what M'gann was cooking. Eventually she got to the kitchen, but instead of M'gann cooking, it was Shade as the memories of last night came crashing down on her. She began crying again as she felt two strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer as she cried into his shoulder. Artemis felt him break the hug of and for once she got a good look at what Shade looked like. He had spiky, black and white hair that obscured one of his eyes from view, the left eye Artemis could see was a dark yellow with specks of red and purple dotted around the pupil and she guessed that was what the other eye looked and on the right side of his face was a long scar which she noticed last night. Curiosity got the better of Artemis as she pushed back his spiky hair and gasped at what she seen. Around his right eye was the carving of a traditional Japanese dragon, its mouth was opened up around the eye, almost as if eating it and then it curled around and branched of into many different lines which all met a few centimetres away from his temple with the tail, yet the most disturbing thing was the carving was glowing a dark orange that matched his right eye and made the dragon seem alive. Upon sensing the look she was giving him, he brushed the hair back into place, hiding the glow from view as he turned back around to the breakfast.

"Don't tell anyone," Shade said as he scooped some pancakes and sausages onto her plate, "Let me tell them when the time is right. It's one of the marks everyone who's a test subject at EMGO gets. I was the only one to get it on the eye." Artemis just nodded as my mouth was full of pancake and sausage and she didn't want to spit it all back out again, even if it was amazing to eat.

"Did Batman find anything on the team whereabouts?" Artemis asked once her mouth was clear of the food.

"Not yet, he said he was going to message us with the co ordinates and then we have to go in and save them. Sounds fun?" Shade said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Very, so what are we going to do while we wait?"  
"Could you give me a tour of the cave and of Happy Harbour, that way I won't get lost."  
"Sure let me get changed first." Artemis said as she ate the last scraps of her breakfast and ran of down the hallway towards the bedrooms.

In thirty minutes Artemis and Shade were walking around Happy Harbour in civilian clothes, Artemis wore a brown leather jacket over a sky blue top with skinny jeans and high heeled boots and Shade was wearing black jeans that went down to his ankles, red and blue trainers, and a tight black shirt that showed of his six pack of muscles and his arms. He had his hair was combed over his right eye to hide the dragon shaped scar and he pulled of an emo look. Most of the girls tried to give him there number while jealously glaring at Artemis and the boys just sent Shade jealous glares because of all the girls he was getting.

"Um, how about we stop for something to eat Artemis?" Shade said and she could see that he was getting uncomfortable from the amount of attention he was getting and his hands had some small sparks of fire emanating from them, so Artemis just complied with him before leading him towards a small café she and the team went to sometimes.

"What would you like?" a nineteen year old girl said as she blushed when looking at Shade's chest and arms.

"Yes, could I have a caramel square and hot chocolate please?" Shade said giving the waitress and small smile as she blushed even more.

"And could I have the same as him?" Artemis said looking at the waitress with a bit of envy in her eyes, but if the waitress saw it she didn't let on.

"That would be ten dollars." The girl said as she blushed even more as his hand made contact with hers.

"_Honestly, do all girls act like this around him?" _Artemis thought bitterly.

"You're order will be with you shortly. We'll bring it to your table." The waitress said before she went into the kitchen to give the order. Artemis grabbed Shade's arm and dragging him over to a table.

"What was that for?" Shade demanded as quietly as he could while rubbing his wrist where Artemis grabbed him.

"Are you oblivious to most of the things that go around you?" she said as equally as quiet.

"No, just to people who are trying to get with me. "I don't really let that many people into my life, especially after EMGO, my trust sort of fallen. That's why Cheshire scared of me, I know a lot about her, but she doesn't know much about me."

"Oh I'm didn't know, sorry…" Artemis started to say but cut of when she didn't know his last name.

"Ross, Ross Hunter." He said before leaning back on his chair as the same waitress came with their order of hot chocolate and caramel squares.

"So what about you're parents, what are they like?" at the question Ross almost chocked on the hot chocolate he was drinking before recomposing himself.

"I don't really remember much about my parents, I don't even know if they're alive or dead, but I do know they spent a lot of time looking for me. Then when the EMGO fire happened I found the League of Shadows and was trained by them under the name Ragnarök, the Apocalypse for the Norse. Left when I was sixteen and been wandering the States for two months now" Ross said as best he could without painful memories coming back to him. For some reason Artemis felt sympathy for him as she basically went through the same thing but didn't press further incase she over stepped her boundary line. She was about to say something more when the TV news channel came on only with Joker as the announcer.

"Hello, have I reached the Justice League and all new s channels, of course I have. Now, last night I'm sure you bozo's heard some explosions. Well that was me. Now there are a few people who want to say hello," with that Joker turned the camera around and showed the captured and beaten members of the young Justice team, "Now if a certain Bats is watching this, he's probably already tracing this signal and is informing that archer girl where we're at. So I'm going to tell you. The old abandoned Gotham Amusement park. Just come and get us." Joker said before the camera feed cut of and Ross and Artemis were already back in the cave getting suited up for the mission.

In ten minutes they were dressed in the clothes they had on after last nights chase scene as Batman showed up in the cave. He just stared at the two teens as Artemis was equipped with her usually arrows and Shade was equipped with two swords strapped onto his waist with scabbards and a quiver on his back. Batman gave a slight nod at them before turning back around to the zeta beams as the three walked in and appeared at a run down telephone booth in Gotham city. Now the chase for the Joker and the safety of the team was on as the three set of towards the north side of Gotham city.

**Hi there, Mad Man in the Flesh here. I haven't seen the second series and haven't seen all of series one yet as well, so sorry if I get some things wrong in the story throughout here. Sorry about this, I accidently deleted the story, so I decided to redo it all and fix some things with my story that I didn't like, so I won't be updating for a while because of this and the fact that I'm in school again. So I hope you like this story and please read and review, everything welcome and anyone can review.**

**Yours truly **

**Mad Man in the Flesh**

_A new member joins the Young Justice Team, but with a past shrouded in mystery and power unknown, will the team even trust him and why is he obsessed with the Helmet of Fate? Artemis x OC, frankly I don't like Spitfire and I grew up with another pairing for Kid Flash and that was Jinx from the Teen Titans. Anyone would probably know her as that was an awesome TV show. Anyway MMITF!_


	2. A Revelation

Batman, Artemis and Shade sat on a roof of an apartment building half a mile away from the abandoned carnival and they could see a lot of small fires around the perimeter and Joker's goons were positioned on the ground with baseball bats and crowbars and other were on the roof with sniper rifle. They were all just walking about without a care but there was a pattern to the whole thing as one group left a new group came to cover the same position, same with the men on the roof tops of the amusements.

"Now remember, if a certain bat comes, bruise him and bring him to the rest of them. Same with his little archer friend." Joker said over the intercom system before finishing of the message with a mad cackle as silence once again came over the grounds.

"Okay, here's the plan," Batman said as he pulled Artemis and Shade away from the edge, "We'll split up once in the carnival. Artemis you take the left, Shade you'll take the right and I'll take down the middle. Don't start a fight unless you have to. Meet back here when we have the team. Stay in contact at all times." On that final note Batman jumped over the edge of the building and ran into the shadows of the carnival and disappeared from the teens eyes. Artemis and Shade shared one last look before they too jumped over the building and went separate ways to do what Batman had told them.

For ten minutes Shade was crawling through the sewers of the carnival as best he could while trying to avoid all the broken areas of the sewer system so as not to be spotted by the guards. He could tell Batman and Artemis were also having trouble as he heard them grunting every once in a while, he even heard the grunting of over people as they took down some of Joker's goons that were in their way.

"Shade, you still there?" Artemis said concern etched into her voice.

"Yeah, I'm in the sewer system, easiest way to get past these guys and there's no one in here, but the systems caved in at parts. It's slowing me down. What about you Batman, how are you doing?" He was met by silence.

"Batman, are you there?" Artemis said as fear crept into her voice, just then a grunt of pain came through the line, which was followed by three quick punishing blows when wood made contact on flesh, then a gun shot could be heard echoing around the Amusment park before Batman's ear piece fell silent.

"Artemis, be careful, it's just us now," Shade said, but was met by static as a mad cackle could be heard in his hear as he heard a bow twang echo through the ear piece. Ross' eyes widened in alarm as he climbed out of the sewer and onto the hall of Mirrors roof. Across the park he could see an explosion that came from one of Artemis' arrows before a second gun shot was heard and Artemis' pained scream could be heard through the ear piece as well as the sickening crack as wood struck skin. Shade quickly pulled the device out of his ear before throwing it across the carnival as he curled up on the roof. He was alone with no one able to bail him out as the Justice League was of planet and Green Arrow was out protecting Central City, for once he felt truly alone and he could do nothing about it. When he was with EMGO there was always the test subjects to talk to and with the Shadows, he was feared but respected yet here, he was stranded halfway through the Team accepting him or getting thrown back onto the streets were he came from.

"Well down boys. The Bats and the archer captured. You're definitely doing something right for once in your miserable lives. Now come one and all to the main attraction." Joker said as the men and women abandoned their positions and headed in the general direction of the big, plastic mountain in the very middle of the park, except for five men who hung around the power plant. Curious, he crept forward and looked in the window and seen a headquarters of cameras around the carnival. The three cameras that caught his eye was one that showed the team suspended above a pool of sharks, Batman was been dragged across the ground towards the same place and Artemis was also being dragged towards Batman and the team. Eventually they met up before he couldn't watch anymore as they raised up their baseball bats and crow bars. Walking onto the roof he seen about five men in the room armed with crowbars and one lady in a black and red body suit sitting at the screens. Outside the building was three guys with bats, Shade seen them as the easier of the targets as he opened a portal of shadows under their feet and then a few meters in the air as the fell down and landed on the ground with a dull thump unconsciousness. Shade smiled as he crawled into an air vent and above two of the guards who were having a smoke on the balcony outside the station. Shade just smiled before walking over and pushing them over the edge of the building and like the three before they hit the ground with a dull thump, only dead this time. Shade then walked into the building and walked up to the next man before forcing him into darkness with a chokehold, he then hid him in a broom closet nearby before moving onto his next target. The last two men were watching the screens from a distance with wide smiles on their faces, Shade made sure to stop those smiles as he walked up behind them before performing another two chokeholds on the men and hid them in the same broom closet as the other man when they fell into unconsciousness. Now the only person in the room was the lady in the black and red body suit.

"So Harley, how's everything going back there? No pesky heroes?" Joker said into the camera that was in the mountain ride.

"None at all Mr J. We've got a feed going straight to the police station of Gotham, Star Central, New York and Fawcett city. Let's see what they make of this." Harley said as she started cackling like the Joker.

"_Enough of this!"_ Shade thought angrily as he jumped over the ledge he was sitting on and landed on Harley's back, pushing her to the ground. He then jumped up and turned off the sound that was leaving the room before forcing Harley Quinn into paralysis with a series of pressure point techniques. Satisfied that she was blacked out, Shade tied her against a pole with a chain and padlock. He then turned back to the screens and seen the Joker was asking something to the screen, so Shade quickly unmuted the screens before listening in.

"Harley, what is going on back there?" Joker whined as glared at the screen. Shade just thought better of it not to answer, instead he pushed a button that turned on the massive TV screen that was set up behind the team and Shade was half surprised when his face showed up on the screen, the other half of him was shocked at the turn of events. He just waved awkwardly at the Joker and his goons while the team looked at him with surprised expressions on their faces.

"Hmm… Who might you be?" Joker said as he pointed the gun he was holding to the screen, giving a silent order for some of the men to go to the power plant, which didn't go unnoticed by Shade. He just gave a wicked smile before placing his hands on the control panel as shadows seeped from his hands and into the control panel, effectively stopping all power that was in the Amusment Park controlling the guns and starting some of the rides such as the swinging chairs and rollercoaster's. A smile spread across Batman's face as the rollercoaster Joker was sitting in went at top speed around the mountain before he fell out when it stopped. Shade taking this as his cue smashed the control panel before jumping into the shadows and reappearing on top of the screen but away from everyone's line of sight.

"Everyone go to the power station. Except you ten, you all be guarding the heroes. Make sure no one gets them!" Joker shouted before the sound of one hundred men and women running outside could be heard as they faded into the distance.

"That kid is as good as dead." One of the guys said as pulled Batman back before letting him go as he crashed into Artemis and started a Newton's cradle only with people.

"I don't know man. He somehow got past eight guys and beat Harley into submission and the Joker's going to take some time to get there. The power station's on the other side of the park, he's probably on his way now." One of the other guys said as he restarted the Newton's Cradle.

"Yeah, he's probably here already." A third guy said. The others looked like he was crazy before all ten burst out laughing. That's when Shade jumped down from the TV and landed on the tracks above the mercenaries, making his presence known as everyone looked up, even the team as they were shocked at the sudden appearance. The mercenaries' aimed their weapons that were baseball bats at Ross who was standing twenty feet above them. He gave of a wicked smile before jumping down and his combat boots with metal soles connected into the shoulders of one guy as a snap was heard as bone broke and the man crumpled to the ground, howling in pain. Two more men swung there bats at him from either side which Shade ducked under before pulling the two men closer and hitting their heads of one another as a loud crack was heard and they to crumpled to the ground unconscious. The last seven men looked apprehensively at Shade and then at the door before they all made a quick run towards the door. Just as they were halfway there the doors slammed shut and Shade walked over to them all before wrapping them in fire that caused them no harm, and soon they were all knocked out and moaning on the ground. Shade then walked over to the captured team before taking out a hilt connected to a broken sword, the team visibly relaxed at this before they felt heat emanating from in front of them and once again they tensed up as the sword had grown to a three meter long sword of fire. He then took a swipe at thin air as the fire flew of the sword and ate right through the chains holding them above the shark pit. Just as they were about to hit the pool a black disc appeared below the team and suspended them a meter above the sharks.

"So, how are we meant to get out of here without the Joker noticing?" Aqua lad questioned as he picked up his water pack and water bearers as the rest of the team picked up their equipment. Shade just made the well known come closer sign. When the whole group was grouped around him he clasped Artemis' and Batman's wrist before telling the rest of the team to hold on. Artemis knowing what was about to happen didn't say a word but held on tighter which went unnoticed by everyone as he ran towards the biggest shadow he could find as the whole team tried to stop him but were to slow at they hit the shadow and vanished. This time it was harder for Shade to drag everyone through the shadow realm as they all went limp from fear, and yet he was pulling them through and he probably would have let go of everyone if he didn't land in the cave as soon as he was about to pass out from exhaustion. The last thing Ross saw before he fell into darkness was the face of Artemis looking at him with a smile etched on her face, along with the other team. Eventually he fell asleep and fell like lead into Batman's arms.

When Shade opened his eyes he was in a completely white room and the light was so bright he couldn't see a meter in front of him.

"Good, you're up," A very old voice said, it sounded crackly as if the person hadn't had a drink in years yet wise as if he had lived for hundred of years, "Now are time is limited here. I can't tell you what you need to know. I'll try and contact you later. Good bye." And with that the voice faded all together as well as the white room before a new image showed up in front of Ross. It was blurry but he could see a man playing with two young children, no more than four years old and he heard a woman laughing as the man fell onto the ground with the children sitting on him. The woman called something and the children jumped of the man and ran towards the stairs before disappearing into smoke. The woman then walked over to the man who was now sitting up and sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her head into the crock of his neck. She mumbled something inaudible before giving him a peck on the lips before everything disappeared into smoke. The last thing he seen was the woman. She had amazing grey eyes and long, golden blonde hair, he just couldn't think about who it was because by the time the image entered his head, it left. All he could think of was what the hell just happened. Sure he had seen a lot of creepy stuff that would scar him for eternity but that was somewhere near the top of his least.

"You wish to know what that was about?" a woman's voice said, it was calm but also held godly amounts of power.

"Yes. What did I just see?" Ross answered without sounding intimidated. Just then a woman in a crimson red top with a pair of skinny jeans appeared out of no where. She was a petite woman but still quite tall, her body was slender and her clothes showed of her curves well, her eyes were like kaleidoscopes always changing colour and her silky brown hair flowed down to her mid back. Yet instead of falling in love with this beautiful deity, Ross felt anger course through his veins has he attempted to lunge at her, but for way he didn't know.

"What was that for?" the woman said with actually hurt in her voice as she tied him up with vapour from the dream clouds. Ross just gave a shrug as he felt something stir in pain inside him. The woman stared at him weirdly before he felt a presence in his mind that was slowly spreading and making his body go numb. Just as he was about to lose consciousness a burst of energy came from nowhere and shredded the bonds holding him and forcing the presence of the woman from his mind as she stumbled away into the smog of his mind. Ross looked down towards his hands and seen his palm fade away to show bone and as it healed over his dream faded into black as he woke up in a hospital bed with Artemis sleeping beside him. Super boy was at the bottom of the bed along with Aqua lad and Robin. M'gann was no where to be seen as was Kid Flash and the two Justice League Members but he expected that of them. Trying to remember the dream he saw, he couldn't and was starting to believe that it hadn't even happened. Slowly getting up, he jumped out of the bed and headed towards the door, being carful not to wake anyone up as he left the hospital ward. As soon as he stepped out the door he heard the sounds of trays being hit together and the sound of someone eating a lot of crunchy food and the smell of chocolate and biscuits. He followed the sound and smell until he reached the kitchen. He saw M'gann crouching in front of the oven and Kid Flash sitting at the island with a plate and twenty cookies stacked precariously on it. He sat beside Kid Flash and took a good amount of pleasure from the "manly" scream that came from Kid Flash's lips when he noticed he was sitting beside him. Upon hearing the scream M'gann flew up with two cookies in her hands as weapons and Super boy came running round the corner after hearing the scream.

"M'gann, are you okay?" Conner said as he stared wide eyed at the scene in front of him. M'gann was throwing freshly baked cookies at Ross while Kid Flash ate the ones that M'gann missed.

"I'm alright Conner." M'gann said as she stopped throwing the cookies as she walked over to Conner and gave him a quick hug.

"Then who screamed?" Conner questioned as he looked around, Ross was laughing, while Wally was eating to his hearts content so nothing new there.

"Oh that was Wally." Now it was Conners turn to laugh as Wally's face went redder and redder from embarrassment.

"Nothing leaves the room. Okay." Wally said as he ran out of the room in super speed with after images of himself.

"Hey, where's Wally going?" Robin said making M'gann, once again, throw cookies at the three new entries.

"M'gann, stop throwing cookies!" Kaldur shouted after jumping behind the island and grabbing M'gann with the help of Conner. Ross was still laughing but had some cookies in his hair and melted chocolate covered his face and Artemis was laughing as was Robin who was not victims of M'gann's little cookie assault. The team slowly started filing out of the room until it was only Conner and Ross left as they received the brunt of the chocolate and had some gotten melted chocolate on their face.

"So, is it like this everyday?" Ross said as he attempted to clean most of the melted chocolate out of his hair.

""Some days are usually crazier," Conner said with a grin as he remembered when M'gann had covered him in icing, "We should go now, Canary's probably wondering where we are and we're already late for training." As he looked towards the small clock on the oven. Ross just nodded at him before they both ran out of the room and towards the zeta tubes. They both rounded the corner at full speed, before crashing into each other and becoming a heap of tangled limbs. The whole team was laughing silently at the two as they gave small groans of pain or annoyance.

"Glad you two could join us," Black Canary sad as she had a playful smirk on her face. Conner grinned sheepishly while Ross just gave a small nod of his head in acknowledgement, "Ross, how are you and fighting?"  
"Fist fighting or weapons?"  
"Fist. How good are you at it?" Canary said as she took of her jacket and walked onto the training circle with Ross. The team knowing what was about to happen stepped of the circle which went unnoticed to the completely oblivious Ross.

"I can hold my own in a fight but I usually use my… What the!" Ross shouted as Black Canary swung a fist at his face which he narrowly dodged before she swung her left leg at his knees causing him to trip, but instead of falling on his back he did a back flip with one hand and landed back on his feet a metre away from her. The team looked surprise before he ran towards Black Canary. He struck out with his leg and struck her right knee causing her to fall forward and strike out at Ross before he grabbed her fist and pulling forward, causing her to lose her balance before he pulled her left leg from under her causing her to fall on her face as Ross rolled away from her. Canary got up and started clapping as she walked over to him, she held out her hand to shake, which he took graciously not realising the real reason she was being kind until it was to late. Once she grabbed his hand she flipped him over onto his back, but instead of letting go Ross held on and brung her down with him so they were both lying on the floor with the status circle saying failed beneath them. Ross was pulled back to his feet by Kaldur and Robin while Artemis and Miss Martian picked up Black Canary.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Robin said as he stared at Ross with interest. Shade rubbed his arm as if he was nervous about something.

"The League of Shadows trained me. For six months before I left. Made my way to America with the help of some… unconventional allies." Ross said as he looked dead into the tinted glasses of the thirteen year old boy.

"Who were these allies?" Kaldur said as he walked up to Ross, his hands crossed over his chest and tapping his fingers against his jacket. Ross' eyes clouded over and an inhuman voice spoke through him.

"Silly kids, do you really knew the true threat that is coming? You know nothing, and it will be your downfall." The voice said in a scratchy voice that made it sound like he was gargling sand paper and marbles at the same time and just to finish of the show the thing burnt of half of Ross' skin to show the skeleton beneath before the flesh came back over and Ross stumbled back as if shoved into reality. He gave a groan of pain before staring at his hands as if they might just start strangling someone.

"What the hell just happened?" Wally questioned as he backed up slowly from Ross incase the skeleton popped out again.

"Honestly," Ross said half laughing, "I don't know." He then turned round and basically threw up his organs. M'gann stepped back with a look of disgust on her face from all the vomit, Artemis had a look of curiosity in her eyes along with Kaldur who was trying to help him stand up.

"Are you okay my friend?" Kaldur said when he was sure Ross could stand up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ross said with a wave of his hand, but to Artemis and Robin, he certainly didn't look it. His face was gaunt and had gone very pale; his left eye had gone a drastic change from yellow to black, before the normal colour came back in.

"Will someone please tell me what the heck is going on?" Wally shouted and pointed a finger at Ross he was leaning on Kaldur to stay up right, "Preferably you…" Wally paused as did the rest of the team when they realised they didn't know his name.

"My name's Ross Hunter, power to control the shadows and fire, and as I said before I don't know what the hell just happened. I'm going to say it's an alter ego for now until we know what is inside my mind." He said as he had a stare down with Wally before turning away.

"Well Ross, I want some answers." Wally said as he used his super speed so he and Ross were having another stare down. Ross went a glare his way before answering,

"I just told you, that's all I know. And for the allies I don't know who they are, they said something about New Genesis or something like that." Super boy took in a small breath at the name of New Genesis but no one noticed, which he was happy about.

"Maybe the League knows about this New Genesis," Aqua lad stated as he pushed Wally away from Ross, "but until then, we should try and see what's in your head. Miss Martian if you wouldn't mind." Aqua lad said as he looked towards M'gann with a look saying please do this.

"Okay. Ross I need your full cooperation here, don't try and force me out."  
"Okay, but don't go where you shouldn't I'll start resisting then." He said before allowing M'gann into his mind. Her eyes glowed a bright green as did Ross' before everything started going wrong. M'gann cried out in fear as the physic link was broken but Ross' eyes refused to stop glowing green and flames and shadows were jumping of his body and started forming an image. It showed a boy about the age of ten or eleven running in a forest while men in lab coats chased after him and two others, the two other children had a carving of a dragon on their arms while the child in the middle had no visible marks. The men started chanting something and two of the children fell down while the one in the middle ran for a few more seconds before the third fell down when a man shot him with something that paralysed him. The image then turned to a lab with the same boy as before chained up to a table, the only difference was there was sound and the boy now looked fifteen.

"Well, the good news is this will be your last experiment, the bad news is that it may hurt." The man nodded at someone in the background before he walked out of the room and behind a glass window that was probably bullet proof. As soon as the man got out of the room the boy was struck with electricity from two strobes from the wall.

"Use your pain. Make it your strength, use that pain of you and others to your advantage. Pain is just a weakness that you most exploit." The mystery man said before everything was quiet except for the screams from the boy that were slowly stopping at the electricity subsided.

"What are you doing?" a man questioned, "Why did you stop the electricity?"

"I didn't sir. The boy stopped it himself." Another man said before the Tesla coils exploded on themselves and fire spread rapidly around the facility and trapping the scientists inside. The equipment started collapsing as fire and shadows pushed over the shelves or heart beat monitors, trapping or killing scientists while the ones that were still alive tried to get the kid out of the machine. While the scientists were busy trying to get the teenager out a vicious laugh was heard as a type of man descended from the ceiling like the Grim Reaper, complete with black robes and scythe and then the images disappeared as Ross' eyes went back to the yellow colour they original were. The shadows converged on Ross and made a sort of shield that blocked him from the teams' sight. When the shadows disappeared Ross stood there, only in his black robes that covered his body and a scythe on his back. Ross reached out a hand that sent the team reeling in shock as they seen only bone and nothing else, the whole thing was a living skeleton. The thing retracted its hand timidly as if it didn't know what to be doing.

"This world will be the first to fall." It said and spoke in the same voice as the thing that spoke before and then it dispersed in a series of shadows and Ross once again was left in its place.

"I think beings just like to posses me." Ross said as he got up from the floor, rubbing his head in pain or confusion. Artemis was about to say something before Batman called.

"Team, suit up. I'll brief you on the Bio ship on the way to Nepal." With that being said, everyone dropped the subject of Ross and ran to get ready for the mission.

Ten minutes later the team were in their gear with Robin checking his gadgets and Artemis checking her arrows as they were flying over the Pacific Ocean towards Nepal.

"Your mission is to infiltrate this," Batman said as he brought up an image of a castle that looked from the thirteenth century, with a moat and towers that almost scraped the clouds at least three miles above them, "We have reason to believe that The League of Shadows are using this base to move military grade weapons across into China and from there, into America. Your mission is to stop the weapons and find out who bought the weapons. This is a search and destroy mission, you are allowed to engage but I don't want to hear about any explosion on the news." With that being said, Batman ended the transmission and the occupants flew in silence for the rest of the journey.


End file.
